Without mastering the rules, strictly speaking, it cannot be deemed a half-step Taoist artifact.
However, having now gained understanding, all that's needed is a little more practice. It won't be long before the spirit weapon masters the rules, and achieves the status of a half-step Taoist artifact.
Such a scenario is relatively special.
Because even when an artifact refiner possesses a Taoist item, he will not be able to accurately judge whether that item has understood the power of the rules but is yet to control it at the time of its inception.
This often leads the artifact refiner to misjudge, and believe he has failed.
They may prematurely sell it off or simply leave it untouched.
In this case, Li Jing was rather fortunate.
There's both luck and inevitability to it.